Alpenglow Sports Winter Speaker Series: Anna Pfaff

Life’s Newest Crux

View online or in person. 

Rural northeast Ohio isn’t a breeding ground for alpinists, but that’s exactly where one of the world’s premiere alpinists was born and raised. When Anna Pfaff, 37, moved to Colorado to finish her nursing degree at the University of Colorado Denver, she joined her classmates for a trip to Indian Creek, Utah where she instantly was hooked on climbing. After graduating in 2003, Pfaff relocated to Boulder where she honed her skills on multi-pitch routes in Eldorado Canyon and the cracks of Indian Creek. The following year, she made the pilgrimage to Yosemite and within a year had climbed El Capitan. When she headed south one winter and first climbed in the Fitz Roy range, she was hooked on alpine climbing.

Ever since, Pfaff has become one of the world’s premier alpinists and expedition climbers and has climbed in some of the most remote alpine terrain in the world, including multiple expeditions to the Karakorum Range of Pakistan, Tibetan Himalaya, Nepal and India, the Tian Shan of Kyrgyzstan, the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in Colombia, and the Peruvian, Bolivian, the Patagonian Andes and Antarctica. Anna is happiest setting new routes in remote parts of the world, climbing first ascents, and learning about the people and culture surrounding the peaks she’s climbing.

In April of 2022, Anna Pfaff and climbing partner Priti Wright successfully climbed the Alaskan giant Mt. Huntington, via the Harvard Route, a coveted and highly technical alpine route. Upon arriving back in basecamp, Pfaff was struck with aggressive frostbite on both feet, which ultimately led to the loss of six toes. Pfaff’s show Life’s New Crux will document her journey throughout the process and how she is working hard to return to the mountains. Alpine adventures around the world have shaped Pfaff, and now she is using these lessons to help her overcome a new crux in life.

Dinner will be available from our friends at MOGROG Rotisserie. 15% of all food sales will go to benefit the nonprofit beneficiary of the evening.

The beneficiary of our fourth show with Anna Pfaff is Sierra Senior Services. If you are planning to attend the events in person at Olympic Valley Lodge,  you do not need to register, merely show up and join the fun. Each show will also be live streamed on Alpenglow’s YouTube channel. No registration is required to watch online. For the 2022-23 season, there will be two giveaways per show. The much loved and anticipated in-person giveaway will return after a Covid-safety hiatus and will be for all in-person attendees who purchase physical giveaway tickets at the show. The second giveaway will happen on our YouTube channel the morning after the event, and will include all giveaway tickets that were purchased online by viewers tuning in from afar. Prizes for each giveaway are DIFFERENT and you are allowed to purchase tickets at both. Tickets for the online giveaway can be purchased at ANY time prior to the show AND until 1159pm PST on the night of the event HERE.

Sierra Senior Services delivers nutritious meals throughout the Truckee/North Lake Tahoe community to older adults facing food insecurity. Their mission is to reduce isolation and hunger, enabling local seniors to continue living independently for as long as safely possible.